Kelly Clarkson was battling a private pain, as her former husband’s health was declining. Last week Brandon Blackstock passed away after a three-year battle with cancer. Clarkson and Blackstock were married in 2013, splitting in 2020. The former couple share two children, daughter River and son Remington.
In a performance during her Studio Sessions Las Vegas residency, a TikTok user who goes by the username modestishottest4u, shares a video of Clarkson breaking down before singing “Piece by Piece.” The performance was posted on July 28. The song was originally released in 2015 as the title track of her seventh studio album. It was initially penned as a message to her absentee father.
“I’ve never rewritten a song more and I probably never will,” Clarkson says in the clip. “I wrote this song with a lot of hope, and projection for happiness and better than what was happening. And then, well, life set in and I had to change the lyrics.
“Everybody was like, ‘Wait, why aren’t you singing this song?’ she remembers. “And I was like, ‘Have you heard the lyrics?’ That’s fun. Embarrassing.”
The Message Kelly Clarkson Shares In “Piece By Piece”
The song says in part, “Piece by piece, he collected me up / Off the ground, where you abandoned things, yeah / Piece by piece, he filled the holes that you burned in me at six years old.” At the time, the song paid homage to Blackstock, which is why Clarkson felt the need to change the lyric after their divorce.
“I ended up changing it and doing it one time two years ago, [when] we did a residency here,” Clarkson explains. “And then I was like, ‘You know what, that sounded a little angry.’ So I just wanted to explain how it feels now. I’m 43. I’ve done some therapy, and I changed the lyrics now, and I feel like it’s perfect. I promise. I’m not gonna change it again. This new lyric, it just represents .. I feel like we grow up, right? And this is the more grown-up version of it.”
Clarkson postponed all of the August dates on her Studio Sessions residency to be with her children, sharing the news on social media.
Blackstock has two older children from a former relationship. He is the son of Narvel Blackstock, the ex-husband of Reba McEntire.
